These rais'd new empires o'er the earth, And those new heav'ns and systems fram'd. They had no poet, and they died. In vain they schem'd, in vain they bled! They had no poet, and are dead. 16 Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona AND OTHER PIECES OF MUSIC. [Written in the year 1708.] I. DESCEND, ye Nine! descend and sing; The breathing instruments inspire; The shrill echoes rebound; While in more length'd notes and slow, The deep, majestic, solemn, organs blow. 10 Gently steal upon the ear; Now louder, and yet louder rise, And fill with spreading sounds the skies. Exulting in triumph now swell the bold notes, The strains decay, And melt away. In a dying, dying, fall. 15 20 II. By Music, minds an equal temper know, 25 But when our country's cause provokes to arms, So when the first bold vessel dar'd the seas, High on the stern the Thracian rais'd his strain, 40 While Argo saw her kindred trees 45 IV. But when thro' all th' infernal bounds, O'er all the dreary coasts! Dreadful gleams, 50 55 бо But, hark! he strikes the golden lyre; 65 Thy stone, O Sisyphus, stands still, And the pale spectres dance; The Furies sink upon their iron beds, And snakes uncurl'd hang list'ning round their heads. V. By the streams that ever flow, 71 75 By the heroes' armed shades, Wand'ring in the myrtle grove ;-- 80 Restore, restore Eurydice to life: Oh, take the husband, or return the wife! He sung, and Hell consented 85 To hear the poet's pray'r; And gave him back the fair. O'er death and o'er hell, A conquest how hard and how glorious! With Styx nine times round her, Yet music and love were victorious. VI. But soon, too soon, the lover turns his eyes; Beside the falls of fountains, 95 100 |